POULTRY KEEPING 611 



rations. The following is an excellent ration: Equal parts corn 

 meal, wheat bran, green food, 5 per cent of beef scraps, and 5 per 

 cent coarse sand or grit. A ration for breeding (laying) ducks is 

 recommended as follows : Fifty per cent by measure, corn meal ; 15 

 per cent wheat bran ; 15 per cent green foods (cooked vegetables, such 

 as potatoes, turnips, etc.) ; 12 per cent beef scraps, and 8 per cent 

 coarse sand or grit. Mix with water to a dry crumbly state and feed 

 twice a day, morning and night. After the breeding season is over 

 and the ducks have stopped laying they are changed from this to 

 the equal-parts ration, as given above for ducklings from seven to 

 fifty-six days old. 



Oyster Shells and Grit. Grit in some form is essential to ducks, 

 and should be kept before them at all times. Many overlook this 

 fact, and do not seem to understand that it is of as much value to 

 them as it is to chickens. 



Incubation. Of the natural method we shall treat first: Hens 

 of medium size of the American class, barred Plymouth Rocks and 

 Wyandottes, are considered the best for sitting. Nine duck eggs are 

 about the right number to place under a hen in early spring weather, 

 but when the season is far advanced as many as thirteen are used. 

 The hens should be provided with large, roomy nests, and slatted 

 fronts that can be removed and replaced easily when the hens are 

 fed and watered. The nesting material should be of hay or straw, 

 and the nest should be slightly concaved ; in the bottom place a little 

 finely cut hay. 



Before the hen is put on the eggs she should be thoroughly dusted 

 with insecticides; the nest also should have a good dusting of the 

 game. Both hen and nest should undergo a thorough dusting sev- 

 eral times during the process of hatching as a safeguard against lice. 

 When the ducklings are hatched they should also have their share 

 of the insecticides before they are given to the hen. 



For artificial incubation, have a room with a temperature as 

 nearly uniform as possible. Balance the heat in the machines, or, 

 in other words, see that the heat is uniform at both ends, and, in fact, 

 all over them. See that each is running steadily before placing the 

 eggs in it, as there is a great deal in starting right. The machines 

 should be run at a temperature of 102 for the first three weeks, and 

 103 the last week. The eggs should be turned twice each day at 

 regular periods. Introduce a pan of water from the fifteenth to the 

 twenty-second day, no matter what the location of the machine, 

 whether in a damp cellar or in a dry room overhead, in a moist at- 

 mosphere near the seashore or in a dry one at an altitude in the 

 country. The temperature may go as high as 104 just previous to 

 and while hatching without injury. 



Considerable weight has been put upon the ventilation question 

 in incubators by manufacturers and operators, but it has been found 

 that when the egg chamber is roomy, and the eggs are taken out and 

 cooled twice each day, it is not of so much consequence. There is 

 no doubt but that there must be some ventilation in the egg chamber, 

 but from the experience and observation of the writer the value of the 



